Recently found your forum. I'm hoping to discuss Dhamma with intelligent, sane people. All too often I run up against mushy-minded new-agey crystals and pyramid types--or worse! I'm a photographer, currently working in New England (USA), heading off to Asia in November. Second time through Handful of leaves, it has been a revelation. I've found accesstoinsight to be an incredible resource. I'd like to talk to others on the path. The non-crazy ones, I mean.

Last edited by alan on Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

P.S. You might want to have a look at the different sub-forums here, get a feel of what they're each about (and any forum-specific guidelines they may possess) and use this categorisation to customise your experience here by steering clear of that which won't be of interest to you.

NO sorry if you find anyone who is sane and rational slap them with a kipper 60 times while singing the birdy song off key in e minor, then youll see just how sane and rational they really are!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhJQp-q1Y1s

Last edited by Cittasanto on Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

Manapa wrote:NO sorry if you find anyone who is sane and rational slap them with a kipper 60 times while singing the birdy song off key in e minor, then youll see just how sane and rational they really are!

A kipper? I would go for a flounder. Somehow more poetic.

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723

>> Do you see a man wise[enlightened/ariya]in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<<-- Proverbs 26:12

Manapa wrote:NO sorry if you find anyone who is sane and rational slap them with a kipper 60 times while singing the birdy song off key in e minor, then youll see just how sane and rational they really are!

A kipper? I would go for a flounder. Somehow more poetic.

Not the same smell! EditLeave something to keep the memory ticking over

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

Greetings! In my experience, people interested in the Dharma fall on a spectrum ranging from rational to irrational and every point in between, by Dharma subject. The Dharma gently nudges everyone toward the middle ground.

Vision is MindMind is EmptyEmptiness is Clear LightClear Light is UnionUnion is Great Bliss

Hi there Alan, keep in mind that no matter where we go, we're going to find things that are disagreeable to us. You could look at it this way: It's a good chance to practice those Paramis.

"Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with what is not loved is stressful, separation from what is loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"And what is the cause by which stress comes into play? Craving is the cause by which stress comes into play.

"And what is the diversity in stress? There is major stress & minor, slowly fading & quickly fading. This is called the diversity in stress.

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"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Hi AlanWelcome to Dhamma Wheel!Hope to see some of your contributions soon!cheers

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

alan wrote:Recently found your forum. I'm hoping to discuss Dhamma with intelligent, sane people. All too often I run up against mushy-minded new-agey crystals and pyramid types--or worse! I'm a photographer, currently working in New England (USA), heading off to Asia in November. Second time through Handful of leaves, it has been a revelation. I've found accesstoinsight to be an incredible resource. I'd like to talk to others on the path. The non-crazy ones, I mean.

Personally I am working hard to stop my habitual aversion to any manifestation of New Age " philosophy ".Not because I am tempted by any of its manifestations, but because I am trying to see the person behind the views.Its not always easy.....

The going for refuge is the door of entrance to the teachings of the Buddha.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

alan wrote:If what you mean is that the Pythons were a troupe of enlightened beings, I concur.

Enlightened ?Half the time they werent even funny ! Some of their shows were recently screened by the BBC on one of its subsidary channels. For every memorable sketch there were about four that were deadly dull and dated. I would expect a troupe of Enlightened people to be a little more consistant.. Plus, if John Cleese was Enlightened, what happened to turn him into a bore ? NO no no...

The going for refuge is the door of entrance to the teachings of the Buddha.